Every now and then someone will ever so gently remind me that I have tastemaking duties to uphold, since when I’m not bagging on rappers I actually listen to–and even often buy–music. With that in mind, I’ve decided that I’ll regularly point you to 9 joints that have the full support of my iPod, starting with
1. Diamond District: “Something For Y’all”
In The Ruff easily merks higher profile rap releases in 2009, and I’m not just saying that because Diamond District hails from DC like Yours Truly. No no no. Some bad Hip-Hop has come out of DC and will continue to, but there’s also a contingent of acts that actually know what they’re doing and consistently produce quality shit, namely those of the Low Budget crew. Kev Brown, who never fails to rep DC with his cadence and jargon, produces and guests on “Something For Ya’ll”, a new track off the official release of In The Ruff. It’s the perfect bonus track to what was already a refreshing release.
With The NovaJava Blend, my goal is to complete a ton of unfinished blends on my hard drive and deliver them to you on a (fairly) weekly basis. They will cover a range of sounds and approaches-R&B/Soul, House, Hip-Hop, Pop, commercial, underground, new, old, fresh and forgotten. There will be occasions when a blend is anchored by something brand new, but the goal of the project isn’t indiscriminately dropping new shit for GP. Enjoy, and feel free to send suggestions and tracks to novaslim@gmail.com.